1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to management of television channels, and in particular, to automatic management of high definition (HD) channel lists.
2. Description of the Related Technology
High definition (HD) television broadcast channels, while becoming increasingly more available, still remain a small percentage of all available air and cable channels. Usually, cable channels do not contain any Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) information, and cable companies typically do not provide the channel list to the public. Therefore, viewers, in the beginning, do not know where any of the HDTV channels are located. Unlike most air feeds, which sometimes have channel names that indicate HD, channel names for cable channels typically do not have any indications of HD. Therefore, viewers that receive cable channels, therefore, often have to scroll through all channels to find available HD channels.
Adding to the difficulty of finding available HD channels is the fact that digital television channels have physical channel numbers and virtual channel numbers associated with them. The physical channel number is the actual channel number from where the channel is being broadcast. The virtual channel number, which is optional, is the channel number that can be used for repositioning the channel on a digital TV. For example, ABC-HD can be broadcast on physical channel 84-2 and have a virtual channel number of 7-1. As a result, on a digital TV, ABC-HD will come out on 7-1 instead of 84-2. Unfortunately, many channels on cable do not have these virtual channel numbers which make finding channels easier for viewers. Therefore, it results in the viewer being even more confused on where to find the HD channels. They do not know the physical channel numbers, and these numbers are not disclosed to the viewer by the cable provider.
While a favorite channel list, which is available in some television sets, can be used to store the HDTV channels, the viewers would still initially have to manually locate the HDTV channels. In addition, when a stored HD channel is no longer available or a new HD channel is added to the cable programming, the favorite channel list needs to be manually updated. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a television set with an integral capability to manage HD channel lists, including automatically generating and updating HD channel lists.